Lee.org

I remember when they first introduced this notion that you shouldn’t give babies peanuts “just in case” and I thought that was a bad idea and would probably cause allergies. Welp. That’s what witholding peanuts from babies does! I’m sure it’s true for many other things. Every kid should eat their share of dirt, peanuts, all the other potentially allergenic foods, and build a tolerance to iocane powder!

Reversing peanut advice prevented tens of thousands of allergy cases, researchers say

I got a letter from justice@freebenandjerrys.com asking me to write a letter in Favor of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream not being shit.

On this site, I wrote a letter directed at the CEO, Chairman and Board of Directors at Magnum

I wrote to you directly a few months ago. Here’s a followup.

I had written:
——————–
If you abandon Ben and Jerry’s social mission, I will stop purchasing your product and strongly suggest to my friends the same.

My family has avoided your products since March. Now that the co-founder Jerry Greenfield has left the company for the same reasons, I will actively pursue removing your products from our local shelves by reaching out to friends and local stores, and activism describing how distasteful your products are.

Do the right thing.
—————————-

Here we are and I’ve had the distasteful task of telling my friends not to buy Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. It’s been successful from a boycott perspective. Every person I talked to understood and said they’d consider changing their ice cream habits. And I know for a fact that any have.

As a loyal Ben & Jerry’s customer, I am calling on you to set the company free. Ben & Jerry’s must be able to live its values without interference. Unless you restore its independence, I’m sad to say that you will lose the trust and patronage of people like me.

For nearly fifty years, Ben & Jerry’s has proven that business can be about more than profit. It has created iconic ice cream while standing up for justice, equality, and peace. That independence and authenticity are why I, and millions of others, choose Ben & Jerry’s. Every pint represents more than a flavour; it represents hope and the values we stand for.

But under Unilever and now Magnum, that independence has been eroded. The independent board created to safeguard Ben & Jerry’s mission has been overruled. Decisions that should belong to the company have been blocked. The promises and legally binding agreements made to protect Ben & Jerry’s social mission have been broken.

This isn’t just about ice cream. If even Ben & Jerry’s can be silenced, it sends a chilling message to every business, artist, and individual who dares to speak out for what is right.

If Ben & Jerry’s independence is not restored, you don’t just risk sales of Magnum’s brands. You risk destroying the very thing that makes Ben & Jerry’s valuable: its authenticity.

Magnum has a clear choice. Free Ben & Jerry’s and allow it to be sold to values-aligned investors who will preserve its mission, or watch loyal customers like me turn away from Magnum brands, taking the trust, love, and value that built Ben and Jerry’s with us.

Thank you and do the right thing,
Lee Sonko

A friend on FB mentioned that the garbage on Facebook was becoming intolerable. I concur.
The FB Purity chrome plugin has made my FB experience much less garbagy, but that’s a short term solution. I recommend it.

I’ve got my WordPress blog… Lee.org to tell people how I’m doing, you can subscribe to it by email or put it in an RSS reader or just visit monthly to see how I’m doing.

Where else do we turn for an aggregator of friends to answer “how are my friends doing?” I switched to browsing reddit, quora, and imgur.com the last few months for my “I need a distraction from reality” and that has worked well! Thoughts?

At Burning Man 2023, I walked into the “Black Hole”, a bar in the center of the event. It’s the home of Black Rock City’s Gate, Perimeter and Exodus Department. I was looking for a friend (Hi PPG!), sat down a bit nervous, looking around for them. I was there for a few minutes, wondering how to find my friend when I finally realized I had NO IDEA HOW LONG I HAD BEEN THERE. The reason, of course, is that this song was playing ON REPEAT in the background. It was, in retrospect, brilliant!

(The song is a remix of the Human League song, “Don’t You Want Me”, which just repeats the phrase, “You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar” for the entire song. Amazing!)

When I was a kid, my dad had a watch that looked just like this 1973 Rolex Red-Submariner stainless steel wristwatch 1680. On his, the glow-in-the-dark dots on the face were white instead of yellow.

I came across this image on the Clars.com auction website and I was filled with pleasant nostalgia.

At Christmas when I was about 5, I sat on Santa Claus’ knee and he was asking whether I was a good boy and what I wanted for Christmas. I looked down and saw this watch. I looked up and realized that my dad was Santa Claus! It was a magical moment.

When I had grown, my dad and I talked often about that moment and how impressed he was that I figured out it was him. He’d say, “You bum! You figured it out! How’dju do that! You were just a kid!” I loved talking about that with him.

Whenever we’d talk about it, we’d wonder what happened to the watch. We never figured out exactly. The watch got lost at some point. But that’s ok, our shared joy is intact.

Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega

Magical moments in time.

We got letters from my mom’s insurance provider, Humana Medicare plan saying they were disenrolling her, and a letter from CarePlus Medicare Advantage HMO saying they were enrolling her. I called to find out what was going on and fuckin CarePlus was slamming her (IE, they were becoming her provider without her permission).

Jessica, the nice lady at CarePlus said that the records show that Brenda (evil fucking Brenda) had maybe spoken to mom and switched her “maybe sometime in August or September” with an effective date of October 1st.

I can imagine how the phone call went (if it even happened at all), “Hi, I’m good Brenda from [mumble] insurance company. You’re insurance is going to expire soon but I can help. I’ll help you, Ok?”

Mom, “Hello? Oh if you can help, that’d be great.”

Evil Brenda, “Great! Bye!” [typing furiously, racking up another spiff for the day]

After 40 minutes on the phone with CarePlus, and getting a coveted Grievance Number and Disenrollment Number, my mom’s health insurance should be back to normal.

Fuck evil Brenda at CarePlus.

TLDR: federal employees aren’t allowed to play partisan politics. Many federal websites are now showing partisan messages saying that the Democrats closed the government, when in fact it is a disagreement between the two major political parties that has stalled a budget bill.

The Department of Justice website that explains the Hatch Act is violating the Hatch Act. Read from the first paragraph of that very website:

All Department of Justice employees are subject to the Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. 7323(a) and 7324(a), which generally prohibits Department employees from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty, in a federal facility or using federal property. Political activity is activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group. The statute carries serious penalties including REMOVAL from federal employment.

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If you can’t see it, the very top of the page reads, “Democrats have shut down the government. Department of Justice websites are not currently regularly updated. Please refer to the Department of Justice’s contingency plan for more information.” And to be clear, “Democrats” haven’t shut down the government, a disagreement between the two major parties has done so.

Additionally, they went out of their way to make sure that Archive.org would not save a copy of the illegal website. Under the law, that isn’t “conspiracy” but yes, they are conspiring to cover their tracks.

October 1st snapshot from archive.org

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October 3rd snapshot from archive.org

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I wanted to relay this little vignette that played out over the last few days with Abigail. It might strike a chord with you.

The other day, Abigail was really hot when she got home from school. So I suggested that she take a shower or wet a washcloth and put it on her body. She declined the washcloth and went into the shower. She started shouting that the water was too cold, and she got angry and frustrated… at me! So yesterday it was really hot, and instead of saying any words, I just set out a glass of ice water and a wet washcloth, where she sits down after school. I said nothing to her about it. A few hours later, when her mom came home, she spoke effusively, and happily to her mother about how she found the washcloth and ice water that I set out.

Oh, kids!

How can it be that the website of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development looks like this today?

That is not their job. The department is posting fascist propaganda. The Hatch Act makes posts like this clearly illegal.

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I don’t even know how many other government websites are posting this un-American bullshit.

Oh look, here’s more at HHS.gov

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